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Is the Aaron Judge #16 (Topps Factory Yankee Team Set ) really considered a TRUE Rookie. Any help would be great, Thanks, Wayne !!!

Does it have the RC logo on the card? By MLB rules, only rookie cards can have the RC logo.

It does have the RC logo, I was unsure at the time of doing the checklists if team sets got the RC treatment.

I say YES. Team sets do get RC notes if the RC logo is on there. It is a different set, even when it looks exactly like the flagship base card on the front. It's only available as a team set, so it isn't a parallel.

Any other opinions ?

I agree that this should be a rookie card.  Like spazmatastic said, the team set is it's own set and not a parallel or insert to the Topps flagship set.  

Although keep in mind that the market for that card may think otherwise.  If I was someone looking to buy an Aaron Judge rookie card, I would probably prefer to buy the actual flagship version and not the team set, which would probably make that less valuable.  

So, I would say that it probably should be considered a true rookie, though a lesser one. 

I can't entirely agree with you Sahal. Yes, most people will want the flagship version first. BUT, once the team sets are off the market, singles are pretty hard to find. People mostly buy the team sets to keep in their collection! They aren't going to be trading/selling just the Judge card or any other card in the team set. It is extremely hard to build a team set if you didn't buy one when it released. Team Set cards become harder to find as the years pass, but there are always still Topps flagship cards to obtain from those that pulled multiple copies from a few boxes.

You make a good point, I didn't really think about it from that aspect.  

There are a couple of factors that play into this.

1 - Desirability - more people will want to have the base set card in their collection because that will be looked at as the "true" rookie (regardless of the fact that there are several).

2 - Price Guides - There will be the price guides (print and on-line) that will purport a higher value on the base set card and a lower value on the team set card. They will cite supply and demand (implying that the demand for the team set card is much less than the base set card - see point 1). However, I will say that the price guides are the ones then who are creating more of a demand for the base set card by valuing it higher than a lesser-printed, harder-to-find version (team set card). So by them doing that, they make it cyclical (the more value they place on the card, the more action it gets, which drives the value up, which then gets reported at higher values, etc.).

Yes, my take is that the price guides can actually inflate (or deflate) prices artificially. 

PERFECTLY TYPED!!!